Zugzwang
by Nymbis
Summary: An older Nara plays shogi with a younger Sarutobi. Some manga spoilers.


_Zugzwang_

**AN: **Just a short little idea I had because Team 10 is love._Tsume _is the equivalent of checkmate in shogi.

"Brat," grunted the older man as he surveyed the board, a hand reaching up to scratch the stubble on his chin that barely constituted a beard.

Across from him sat the aforementioned brat, a small girl with choppy brown hair and deep red eyes. "Your turn, Nara-sensei."

The man gave a hiss of irritated breath, "Don't call me sensei, I feel old." He muttered.

There was the smallest hint of a smile on the girl's face, "You are old, sensei."

"Che," he muttered, "I'm only twenty six. That's not that old."

"You're stalling," The girl wisely pointed out.

He sighed, looking skywards, "Kids today are so troublesome."

The little girl pouted, "Are you going to move or not?"

He rolled his eyes, and carefully looked over the pieces, a hand absently reaching into the pocket of his flak vest and pulling out some cigarettes.

"Sensei," The girl protested, "Those are _gross_."

The man scowled, "You don't get to criticize me until you're at least twelve," he ruled, already seeing the future and realizing that it was going to be remarkably similar to his old genin cell- where the kunoichi always admonished their sensei's bad habit. He lit the cigarette and took a drag.

The girl's nose wrinkled upwards, "Yuck." She said with more than enough disgust in her tone, just in case her shogi partner failed to pick up on the distaste beforehand.

The man just smirked, and quickly placed a tile down, "Tsume." He muttered.

The girl's eyes widened in disbelief, and she lowered her gaze to the board. After careful scrutiny, her face fell, "No way." She mumbled, "I didn't even see it."

He just rolled his shoulders, a hand cradling his chin in a bored fashion, "That's because you weren't watching the placement of my knight, or my pawns."

"But the pawns aren't even that important," she argued, still a bit sulky from the loss.

He sighed, "The pawns are one of the most crucial pieces," he instructed, a finger gesturing at the tile, "They don't retreat, and they're pivotal for moving the game along. Pawns are important, if you ignore them, you'll always lose."

She contemplated this for a moment, crossing her arms over her chest, "Can I have a rematch?" She asked reservedly.

The man smiled, and began to quickly reassemble the pieces on his side, the girl beamed before proceeding to do the same.

"Alright, this time I'm going to teach you a new strategy," he drawled, waiting patiently as she continued to replace her tiles.

"Like the Yaguya?" She asked, referring to the previous maneuver he had instructed her on.

He nodded, "This one's not as hard though. It's called the Mino-Gakoi castle."

The girl's delicate fingers snapped the last tile down, and she looked up at her sensei, eager to learn.

He cleared his throat, "Mino-Gakoi is a defensive move where three generals," at this he gestured to two gold generals and a silver one, "work with each other in order to protect the king."

She blinked, "How's it work?"

He moved the rook to the left, "First you move this to fourth rank." He intoned as the tile went to the fourth row of the board, "Then you put the king in the rook's original position."

She nodded, entranced as her red eyes trained on the pieces.

The man continued to reposition the pieces, grabbing the silver general, "Then you move this one next to the king. Now's it's covered on this side. After that, you bring up the left gold general diagonally and to the right." The tile landed with a soft click. He then pointed to the other gold general piece, "And now that general is protected by the other one, so you don't need to move it."

The girl looked up at her instructor, "But what if you want to capture the other person's pieces?"

"Mino-Gakoi is strictly defense, but it works in that the other side is forced to take offensive measures," he said calmly, taking another drag on the cigarette that was perched between his lower teeth and lip, "The three generals are easy to revolve around the king, so taking the opponent's pieces that move forward isn't difficult." He exhaled a plume of smoke.

She evaluated the entire board, before hesitantly saying, "I think I'm ready to try it."

"Che," he mumbled, before moving forward a bishop.

The game progressed, and even though the girl lost every time, she was slowly starting to get the knack for the strategy, and it took longer for the man to defeat her.

"Tsume," he mumbled again as her king was cornered by his rook and pawns, "But you did better this time."

She smiled, eager for approval, "Can we go another round?"

The man looked sadly at his wristwatch, "I can't. That troublesome Rokudaime needs me for a mission briefing in ten minutes."

She pouted, "Troublesome."

He nodded, "Yeah. But Chouji said he'd stop by later with some soup." He paused, standing up slowly and cracking his neck from side to side, "I'll be back tomorrow, so you better practice."

The little girl grinned, "I'll have it down Nara-sensei."

He snorted, "Yare, yare, we'll see." He grumbled, before leaving the back porch and heading into the house.

The door slid shut and the man walked into the room, leaving behind the girl who was eying the board intently. He noticed almost immediately the middle aged woman who was watering some indoor plants.

"I'm on my way out," He said amiably, striding up to her side.

The woman stared at him, a tug of a smile on her lips as an eyebrow rose in speculation, "How long is this one going to take?" She asked in amusement.

The man mimicked the facial expression, "How long is what going to take?"

The woman scoffed, tucking an errant curl of dark hair behind her ear, "Last time you played with her it took her two hours to master the move."

He snorted, "It only took me one when my sensei first gave it to me." He said dismissively, jamming his hands in his pockets, "She'll figure it out. She's been spending so much time at the Yamanaka shop, I'm sure Ino's stubbornness has worn off on her."

She smiled, "Aa." She said admiringly, looking out the sliver from where the door hadn't shut fully. Her daughter appeared to be talking to herself, moving shogi tiles around quickly.

He gave an awkward laugh, "Let's just hope Chouji's visits don't leave her with a penchant for barbeque chips," he grunted before walking towards the front exit.

The woman smiled again, before gently setting down the watering can and facing the retreating jounin, "Shikamaru?" She called hesitantly.

He paused in his step and turned around, "Yes, Sarutobi-san?"

"Thank you." She whispered, her eyes going from the flowers, to the man, and back to the door.

His brown eyes met her red ones for a few moments before the trademark smirk crawled across his face, "For what?"

Just as she was about to elaborate, he exited. She paused, looking at the door before grinning and shaking her head, going outside to watch her child play shogi with a not so empty space.


End file.
